Recently there have a few posts from people asking for help and advice on applying for benefits. This is a plea on their behalf.
The process of applying for any benefit has consistently been made difficult for decades. People in need do not need to be made to feel guilty for applying. They need support in getting through the arduous and stressful process of applying.
The fear of being labelled as scroungers or cheats, as well as the fear of being penalised for receiving "undeserved" benefits are strong enough to deter many needy applicants.
If you do not have helpful suggestions for the people who post please keep your political points and criticisms for another forum
Thank you
Written by
fishonabike
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I haven't noticed any of that, but I'm not a daily visitor. Everyone's case is different and many people truly cannot work.
I volunteer with a charity that helps with disability applications and appeals. The director told me that in 15 years and several thousand disability cases, she has only seen one or two who were "possibly exaggerating a bit," and none at all who were faking it. It is much, much more common for people to be wrongly rejected and to have to appeal to get the support they are entitled to.
I totally agree, the process is obviously made difficult purposely to avoid paying out, it's a disgrace.
I recently started to get my state pension, without any form of questions or anything other than them needing the bank details I wanted it paid into, easy peasy.
However the application to get a bus pass appears to involve just about all forms of ID short of a DNA sample - why??
With the greatest respects, considering you began this delicate subject, perhaps you might be good enough to allow others to reply, with far more insight and consideration, dare I say, that you began the topic with. Furthermore, having made your point, if you disagree with other peoples willingness to post what might be described as helpful, instead of posting your disagreement, you might reply with suggestions to where others might find those more suitable places you allude to.
The process is incredibly difficult.Both me and my daughter needed to apply for PIP.
It was a need , not a choice.
If we could work , we would , in fact , like most people whom need to apply for benefits from medical reasons , being able to feel well enough to work is something that is at the top of your wish list. Nobody wants to be stuck and unable to do the things that other people can do, and being made to feel bad about needing help makes needing help feel even worse.
Because our conditions are mainly physical the forms proving our eligibility were brutal.
You always have to answer with your symptoms on your worst day.
If you answer you can manage to do certain things occasionally you score 0 points, it's ridiculous, you get penalised for trying to do things even if you usually fail.
These benefits are meant to be available to help give support to people in work as well as unable to work , but if you do work , even a little , very occasional volunteering , it's often used as an excuse give you no financial help via PIP.
Advice wise , I suggest that you get written evidence of everything, all your recent Consultant letters from the GP if you don't have your own copies .
Letters from the GP , therapists , work , anything which proves your case on your first attempt and prevents the Benefits Office from using lack of evidence to delay or reject you.
With PIP you should expect to be rejected and go to Mandatory Reconsideration, don't give up at that first rejection , get even more evidence and request a full explanation of their reasons for a future rejection.
Most people are rejected first time , yet 70% of those get the benefit when it goes to Mandatory Reconsideration, it's reprehensible, such drastic U turns prove that initial rejections are a tactic used to reduce the costs on the system and to deter people from further appeals. Many of the most vulnerable people whom apply miss out on benefits they are eligible for because that initial rejection is enough to put them off the extra stress of continuing the process.
My daughter was rejected initially, then I helped her with her form. I got it first time learning from the initial mistakes.
Specify in the additional information section that you will apply for MR and appeal or go to tribunal if you are initially declined.
When you have an interview don't be tricked.
Still tell them how bad you are on your worst day , not your best which is what they attempt to get you to do.
This isn't tricking the system or faking , it's telling the truth because your "worst " days every month usually dictate what you can really manage to do without risking making your condition worse.
Most of us may not have that many " best" days a month but plenty of " worst" ones.
Don't feel shame for your condition and your needs and feel you must over compensate so you don't look as bad like you may do talking with family or friends and say you can do things which you can't , or that you can only do with great difficulty or pain.
They don't care how you feel , especially the stigma , but they will use this as a way to avoid giving you a benefit you deserve.
I read daily and haven't read anything that has labelled people scourgers or not entitled to benefits. I wrote a piece yesterday about my 35 year fight to get disability benefits and how I finally managed to get them . Plus said to pensioners about applying for pension credit .No idea what you have been reading or where.
I have found people of this forum nothing but helpful and caring .
OK: as the OP’s comments were directed at me, I will respond to the challenge.
The Government is currently legislating on benefits fraud: MPs recently voted to approve at second reading the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill by 343 to 87, majority 256. The OBR has estimated that £7.4Bn a year is lost to benefit fraud. Universal Credit for youngsters with mental health issues is seen as a particularly challenging area with links on social media offering advice on what words to use on an application to get a favourable outcome.
Clearly, no one is suggesting that people in genuine need should not apply for the help that they need. However, what is clear is that the application and award process is open to abuse and, as many people are finding out on review, the DWP is seeking to weed out those genuinely not in need of financial support. Logically, the downside of this tightening up is that the evidence process will become more burdensome on the recipient/applicant.
Words like ‘it is my right’ or ‘my entitlement’ are emotive and have no legal status. No one has a right to Welfare support: we all have a right to apply for support in line with the conditions that the Government of the day has applied to a particular Scheme. It could rescind PiP tomorrow and come up with a support scheme that balanced State welfare support with a legal right to do some paid work. The present Government has hinted that it is looking in this direction.
What is staring us all in the face is that the annual Welfare bill is rising to a level where it is becoming unsustainable and squeezing out money for other Government-provided services such as the NHS; education; defence; justice etc. The Government therefore has two choices: one, cut Government expenditure or, two, raise personal taxes. I don’t see a raft of hands voting for either course of action.
In sum, I believe that genuine applicants for support should welcome the fact that needs to be a general tightening up of the application and approval process before benefits are awarded.
I completely support your reply and the reasoning behind it.However, I can understand those seeking support from groups like these who may feel that they are being unjustifiably criticised.
Yes, the route to PIP and similar benefits is extremely complex and claims are often unfairly dismissed, but there is an appeals process. I used this successfully many years ago when my claim for sickness benefit was refused.
An example of extreme unfairness was that of a late friend of mine who was told he was able to work despite being wheelchair-dependent, almost unable to move, and reliant on live-in care 24)7. Fortunately his family went to appeal and quite rightly won.
However, and here I am obviously at odds with the majority here, over the years I have personally seen and been aware of people fraudulently claiming benefits, whether for unemployment or for reasons due to health. It is certainly not an urban myth that people discard their walking aids as soon as they leave the benefits office!
For those of us who have worked for decades, with some working on despite disabilities, it is galling to see, for instance, how many young people are being brought up to expect that benefits are somehow their right, and that an inability to cope with getting up in the morning and going to work entitles them to some form of payment.
My maun point is that in all probability those in this group are decent, genuine people who do not either believe and/or comprehend the extent of fraudulent claims, which are financed to their, (and others like them), own detriment. This is one of the reasons why claimants are expected to jump through hoops in order to be awarded any kind of benefit. If the world was full of honest people we may never have got to this stage.
To all those, and I am sure this applies to all group members, who are in need of any available benefits, engage the assistance of agencies who are set up to advise you, and go through the appeals process if necessary. Unfair and stressful, maybe, but unfortunately inevitable in today's circumstances.
No one is blaming the vulnerable and weakest. From the Office of Budget Responsibility: ‘Disability benefits spending is forecast to be £39.1 billion in Great Britain in 2023-24. We forecast spending to increase to £58.1 billion in 2028-29. That would represent around 4 per cent of total public spending, and 2 per cent of GDP.’ (NB: that is just disability spending not other welfare benefits such as Universal Credit).
In a similar vein, my fellow citizens are complaining that our County Council is refusing to fund a new Civic Centre. The Council’s defence is that 75% of Council Tax revenue is now being spent on Social Care. The cost of children’s services alone has risen by 80% since 2020.
I don’t see any easy answers but a responsible Government has to recognise and deal with these challenges without making life harder for youngsters and ‘those just getting by’.
It is the government's responsibility to fund public services including the benefits bill. That is what government is for.
Tightening up the rules (which have already been tightened hugely) does nothing to help people who actually cannot work. Even in cases of chronic fatigue, back pain and mental health, do you imagine that these people will get better if they are forced to work? Assuming they can get work in the first place, the outcome is more likely to be irate managers, a high rate of sacking and some suicides.
Actual cases I have worked on in the last few years:
Broken neck; waiting for corrective surgery -- assessed as fit to work (won on appeal)
Severe health condition requiring a feeding tube, which is classed as life support -- assessed as fit to work (won on appeal)
Well documented chronic pain and fatigue -- assessed as fit to work. Won on appeal after the client actually fell asleep in court because the reality of the condition was being unable to stay awake (let alone focused) through a 90min session after an hour's travel, even with two naps en route. The client received a personal apology from the judge.
My last comment on what is a major societal funding issue that is facing all of us and particularly our children and grandchildren as taxpayers. The link is worth a read as it is from an independent source: (if nothing more, then read the Key Findings).
Government has said that it will not borrow to pay for Government-provided services. The money to pay for this welfare burden plus other services has to come from taxpayers at a time when the birthrate is falling; the ratio of retired to workers is increasing and the rate of disability is also increasing.
If anyone thinks that the Government has a silver wand to wave over this particular funding crisis, then I suggest that they look at the facts in front of them.
No they don't , but the child and grandchildren whom end up with the tax burden that they always use in their persuasive rhetoric, no matter which party is in Government, are also those that are in need of benefits if they have long term health issues and struggle the most to get the help they need because of their age.Many people voted in the current administration in the hope that these old arguments would stop and that the social care and benefits system would improve at the point of use for those with genuine need.
Personally, I wasn't expecting any more help or to see social care promises kept by the current Government than I saw with the previous one , but I am disappointed at how rapidly the situation got worse , especially for the elderly.
Nobody thinks that Government has a silver wand or a magic money tree and everyone realises that managing to fund proper care and support for people with disabilities, illness or during their senior years is one of the countries hardest problems to resolve.
People know the facts and the old magic wand analogies to excuse certain Government decisions only go towards irritating the General public , because at best such phrases are condescending, at worse insulting.
People with disabilities or long term illnesses are increasing , but it's not a choice to be that way .
They can't help the way National Demographics are changing . They can't just look at the reduction in taxed income and decide not to be sick or disabled anymore.
They still need support , unless which ever ruling Government want them to shuffle off into a corner until they quietly decline .
Eventually any Government will have to face up to the fact that taxation alone at a level that voters accept will not cover the Cost of Health and Social Care( I say Cost , not Burden which is an insulting, stigmatizing and derogatory term ). Most people hoped that the current administration had reached some acceptance about Health and Social Care needs and it's funding , sadly it is proving not to be the case , and they are using the same old rhetoric of the previous administration to excuse it.
Agreed .My youngest daughter is 21.She got her Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, POTs and Fibromyalgia diagnosis at 19. Like me her tachycardia causes sudden fainting so she has to use walking sticks to prevent falls.
At the time she was still in work but struggling.
She did everything possible to continue , being able to work helped her feelings of identity, confidence and self worth.
Her employers helped hugely via Occupational Health swapping her roles to less physical and seated ones , changing her hours , reducing her shifts , giving her permission to go for breaks when she needed them.
None of it was enough. Periods of sick days.
She got worse and worse but still continued to try to work despite advice to stop because her flaring Fibromyalgia would not improve whilst continuing the over exertion triggering it.
Doing that , pushing her limits and eventually causing so much more stress to her system she finally triggered the development of her ME/ CFS and pushed her cardiac condition to the symptoms that she developed microvascular angina at age 21.
Discovered after she finally had to give up work or doing anything from such pain from her Fibromyalgia and her chest, pain so severe that she made an attempt on her life.
At A and E it was discovered the added pain had been mini HAs called MINOCA.
Despite all of this evidence her initial applications were rejected.
That is the sort of health damaging behaviour many people with chronic illnesses go through just to say in work when it's not really practical for them. Because most genuine people with health issues never want to have to leave work or rely on benefits.
Most people hate the stigma they are forced to feel by applying .
Now my daughter is only just managing to get to the point of doing moderate activity at home .....and this slight improvement meant she was dropped to getting basic PIP!!!
The system is tight enough as it is and applying makes people even more ill from the process.
People whom defraud the system will always do it at the expense of the people whom need it.
Because they don't have those illnesses they don't feel the distress of having describe their symptoms when they fill out a form because they aren't experiencing what genuine sufferers feel.
To fraudsters it's just using the right words to get what they want and they have no emotional connection to what they are doing.
So tightening the rules only makes things harder for the genuine applicant and rolls off the back of an actual fraudster,
Tightening the rules never stops fraudsters it only ever deters those in real need that feel bad enough about needing and applying for benefits from applications.
My cousin's daughter has Severe Narcolepsy and needs a carer when leaving the house.
Before COVID she went for her reapplication interview for PIP and Disability Unemployment.
Before going in she fell asleep in the waiting room , fell off a chair and hit her head cutting it open.
They still made her stay for the interview with a tissue at her head after a quick look by a first aider.
She fell to sleep twice during the interview.
They still rejected her claims and said she was fit for work even with the evidence in front of their own eyes.
She had to go to tribunal to get her benefits back after spending four months with no income.
I agree when you are really unwell is so hard to fill in forms and everything is online these days hard for older people. I think you should just need a letter from the doctor and that should be it who are they to question the doctor. I've sold my house rather than claim benefits because I can only manage to work two hours a day and am exhausted after that. I've seen the forms they expect you too fill in basically if you can wash yourself cook and walk a few yards you don't get anything
You are absolutely right in all you say. We have an adult daughter with lifelong disabilities, due in large part to some negligence surrounding her birth. I have battled the benefits system since 1998 and it's increasingly hard and punishing. Please join this site - benefitsandwork.co.ukThis is 100% supportive for applicants and has comprehensive members guides (its not expensive to join) to assist applications for every different benefit claim form.
It takes you through each question and guides you through how to give a thorough answer to it, pointing out how to include vitally important, supportive info that the questions intentionally do not ask!
It is everyone's best possible chance of a successful outcome in their hour of need, which their own NI contributions should have entitled them to in the first place.
Very good luck- please join. You will be glad you did, and I say the same to anyone else who might resonate with the challenges surrounding support for illness.
I would recommend the Citizens Advice, I made an appointment and they helped me complete the form for Attendance Allowance and I got it at the highest rate. They thought of things to say which I’d never have thought of.
You always have to make an appointment here so they already have the paperwork when you go for the appointment. Might take a couple of weeks to get one. Good Luck😁
That was many years ago when I was 17 when there was a massive queue outside citizens advice so things have probably changed by now where you sort out an appointment with them rather than massive queues on the door but my point was that they are always very busy!
Personally I've never seen negativity about people who need to claim benefits on here. Only helpful advice. Surely one only feels guilty when you know your not being truthful.🤗
It’s a major issue in society. People will always attack those that are in need of help from the benefits system. Indoctrinated by certain media outlets. I will probably get some dished out to myself soon as i apply for certain benefits. I truly believe this has been caused by current and previous governments, getting into bed with those media outlets
Back in 2023 I got attacked myself for having applied for housing help off the city council when I was being evicted which was brought on by spite and jealousy looking back!
The process basically comes down to the ability of the claimant and what they can and can't do.I applied about 1 month after my AVR and got the higher amount of £125 however they soon sent me a letter to attend a question and answer as in what I could and couldn't do needless to say end of the higher amount.
Wether the DWP have the staff to do this anymore I would doubt it .
Put in the context of anyone who has had open heart surgery for instance, I can well understand your worries. All you need is the worry of your personal finances .Whether you can afford to eat properly , keep warm enough, etc . We have enough stress going through the whole process of the operation. Good luck with your application .
Hello. I am a retired Service Delivery Manager for the benefits advice service. I am also a Kidney transplant beneficiary. When making a claim firstly read through the qualifying conditions and circumstances relating to your claim.
If you don't qualify don't bother.
Do not exagerate or lie but put full emphasis on the areas you think entitle you to the benefit.
Don't waffle or give irrelevant information.
The advisor will enter your information into a computer and the computer will decide you're eligibility .
If you are not happy reapply giving more relevant information.
Fortunately, tribunals are still -- for now -- staffed by humans who are independent of the DWP. They usually make sensible decisions. But they shouldn't be necessary if the DWP took on board the high percentage of cases won on appeal. Funding ultimately comes from the same pot, and forcing people to appeal to the courts to reverse erroneous decisions by the DWP is not the best use of resources.
Hello I had never applied for anything including a blue badge when I had been told I was more than likely entitled to one. Then my husband who had always been extremely healthy and unlike me was on no medication whatsoever became unwell for the first time in his 79 years. He ended up being diagnosed with cancer in 2023. Through Macmillan I applied for his blue badge and was informed about attendance allowance (AA) which is not means tested- which he then received at the lower level. During the interview I got very upset explaining that I had now become his carer and was concerned if I became unwell and I plummet quickly with my various heart lung and other conditions. Macmillan then recommended that I too might be eligible for Attendance Allowance. They completed the application for me as I was under so much pressure etc looking after my darling husband. I received my own blue badge and AA at the higher level.
I lost my husband in 2024 and am on a much reduced income. This financial support has helped me enormously as I am now on my own at 71 and I am able to engage and afford some help in the house and garden. Which is too much for me on my own.
I know some people need more financial support than this. However I do believe this benefit which is not widely known to people who might just be above the threshold for other benefits.
“ Attendance Allowance helps with extra costs if you have a disability or health condition severe enough that you need to help look after you.”
“You’re state pension age or older.”
The CAB and other agencies should be able to help you complete the documentation.
I am sorry for your loss and glad that you got what you are entitled to. Also that you have a secure roof over your head. I've just been reading that older women represent the fastest growing category of homeless people in Australia and the US. The UK will be next, the way things are going. (Don't get me started on that.)
Over the winter a small agency has opened locally which charges people to complete forms for benefits such as Attendance Allowance, targeting older people specifically. They promote their services quite aggressively on a neighbourhood website. In fact, there are many charities such as Citizens Advice and Age UK, as well as local groups, some churches and foodbanks, which will help with the forms and not charge anything, which is how it should be. I hate to think of people thinking they have to pay.
Never pay for Attendance Allowance form filling. It is somewhat tedious but if you have a qualifying condition and you would benefit from some help you will almost certainly get it. Don't let pride get in the way. Lay it out.
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